A prolific winning jockey with two Melbourne group 1s to his credit, Munce and Shower Of Roses are the likely leaders in the weight-for-age championship, and that suits him fine.

"She's a high-speed stayer," he said yesterday after arriving in Melbourne to prepare to ride Shower Of Roses at today's Breakfast with the Best at Moonee Valley. "That's the way she races best and that's what will give her a chance on Saturday."

In keeping with the pressure-cooker Cox Plates of the past four years - which had freak mare Sunline highballing in front - Munce is predicting Shower Of Roses will ensure this year's version will not be a sit-and-sprint affair.

"It's looking like there will be a small field," he said. "That will suit me as she'll bowl along at a good clip, hopefully without any pressure. Mummify won the Caulfield Cup exactly the same way. It can be done."

Acknowledging Lonhro as "the best horse in the country", Munce said he wouldn't let the presence of the black flash in the Cox Plate affect his judgement.

"Lonhro is the horse to beat - you can't knock the horse, he's done all he's been asked," he said. "But there is one query with him and that's his Cox Plate failure from last year."

The well-supported Lonhro finished sixth behind Northerly last year but has only been beaten once since that race.

In Shower Of Roses, Munce has a group 1 winner against her own age as a three-year-old, an AJC Oaks placegetter and a last-start weight-for-age winner in the Craven Plate at Randwick. "And she's trained by Gai, you've got to respect that," Munce said.

After two lacklustre efforts following a spell, Shower Of Roses had been headed for the spelling farm of owner Eduardo Cojuangco. A last-minute reprieve, however, enabled her to take her place in the Craven Plate with Munce in the saddle.

"I knew once she got up to the mile and a quarter [2000 metres] of the Craven Plate she would come into her own," Munce said. "She's back to peak form now and we've all seen what she can do when she reaches that level."

Munce, who won the Melbourne Cup on Jezabeel in 1998 and last year's VRC Oaks on Bulla Borghese, enjoyed his best Cox Plate result this time a year ago when second on Defier, which will be there again on Saturday.

Munce was replaced on Defier for his Melbourne campaign, with Patrick Payne to ride on Saturday. Munce believes the Guy Walter-trained galloper is not without hope of going one better.

"Defier's best hope is if they go solid up front. The faster the better for him," he said.

"But with any luck I'll be able to dictate terms to suit myself and not the others.

"Paraca is the only horse I'm not sure about. I don't know where it will be in the run. If it wants to come out and take me on, I'll be happy to bowl along behind it.

"I've got no doubt it's going to be a hard race. Realistically, Lonhro has the wood on every horse he has ever raced against. He is a super horse but we're not giving up."

Munce returns to racing on Saturday following a suspension incurred when riding Daneborogh in The Metropolitan at Randwick on October 6.

Along with the stint on the sidelines, which cost him the chance to ride his Melbourne Cup mount Zagalia in the Caulfield Cup, Munce was fined $10,000.

"I reckon I'm a good chance of winning that $10,000 back over the carnival," he said. "Shower Of Roses will run a great race, while Zagalia is right on track for the Melbourne Cup after her sixth at Caulfield. It was a super run."

Shane Dye rode the Clarry Conners-trained Zagalia, on which Munce won the Queensland Oaks this year, in the Caulfield Cup, and Munce said it was a great Melbourne Cup trial.

"She's just a dead-set stayer," he said. "She'll carry 50 kilos and, unlike a lot of other runners which will struggle to run the trip, Zagalia will run the two miles [3200m] of the Melbourne Cup right out. I think she can win it."